Stay Tuned
by delkon
Summary: A new television show is causing Sarah some concern
1. Default Chapter

Stay Tuned  
  
by Delkon  
  
  
Disclaimer: None of the Labyrinth characters are mine, yadda yadda, Have no money, please don't sue...  
  
  
Chapter One  
  
  
Sarah looked around her dorm room and tried to think of anything she could be forgetting before she closed up her suitcase. She didn't see anything that she needed to include with her clothes and the few cds that she wanted to have with her in her old room at home. She zipped up her suitcase, took one last look around the room, then left. She made her way down to the parking lot behind her dormitory, put her suitcase in the back of her beat-up offensively yellow car, and then started driving to her parent's house in upper New York.   
  
Sarah was excited about this trip because of two things; one, she was going to be able to see her little brother Toby for longer than a few days, and two, she was going to have the house all to herself and Toby for an entire week during Christmas break. She had been looking forward to the break ever since her stepmother, Karen, had told her that the week after Christmas, she and Sarah's father were going to have to go to California on business. That was just fine with Sarah, because, although she had finally buried the hatchet with Karen, she really loved the fact that she was going to be able to spend some time alone with Toby and find out all the things he had been up to since she had left to go to college.   
  
Toby was now 6 years old, and, according to Sarah's dad, quite the little bundle of energy. Every time Sarah called home, she could hear Toby in the background asking if that was Sarah on the line or not, and yelling and hollering when told that it was. She smiled as she recalled how excited Toby had sounded upon hearing that she was going to be his babysitter for a week and not the, as he called her, smelly old lady from up the street. Sarah remembered the smelly lady herself from the few times that she had needed to be babysitted when she was a child. She was actually surprised that the old lady was still alive, much less still capable of sitting for Sarah's parents. Sarah saw the exit for her town coming up so she turned on her turn signal and made her way off the busy road and into the more subdued surburban traffic that heralded the arrival of Sarah into her hometown.   
  
Sarah was surprised at all the new construction going on in her hometown. She could see big grocery stores being built, a new wing being added to the hospital, even a new mall was in development close to her neighborhood. It seemed that while she had been away, her hometown had changed on her. Well, she thought to herself as her parent's house came into view, I'm relieved to see that some things haven't changed. She took in the two story Victorian townhouse and the more modern garage set to one side, and felt herself become more relaxed as she saw that nothing on the home front had changed very much. As she was pulling into the driveway, she saw a familiar shape on the front porch lift it's head. Merlin was lying on the porch between the front door and the steps. The now elderly sheepdog got up slowly and made his way to Sarah and butted his head against her leg as she was getting her suitcase out of the trunk of her car. Sarah paused and leaned down and gave Merlin's head a friendly pat as she walked towards the front door of the house. She barely made it to the top of the stairs before the front door was thrown open and a small, blonde-haired boy ran into her, causing her to drop her suitcase.   
  
"Sarah! You're here! Yay! Yay! Yay!" Toby said as he grabbed Sarah and gave her as hard a hug as he possibly could.   
  
"Oof! Toby! You're getting strong little dude! Let me go so I can greet you properly!" Sarah said while trying to free herself.  
  
Toby immediately let go and Sarah dropped down on one knee, and this time, when Toby reached for her, Sarah grabbed him and picked him up in the air and twirled him around, hearing him giggle as she did this.  
  
"Sarah! We're glad you're home!" Sarah's father said as he appeared in the open doorway.   
  
"Glad to be home, Dad. Is Karen home yet?" Sarah said as she stopped spinning Toby around and placed him back down on the floor of the porch.  
  
"No, she won't be home till after supper, she made us all meatloaf, though, and I wanted to wait until you got here before I heated it up. How were your finals? Anything I should know about?" Sarah's father asked as he motioned for both Sarah and Toby to come inside the house.  
  
"Nope! Everything's fine! I think I did really well on all my tests and I don't think you'll be disappointed in my grades!" Sarah said as she started up the stairs to her bedroom with Toby one step behind her.   
  
Sarah put her suitcase on her bed and then picked Toby up and carried him over her shoulder as she made her way downstairs to the den. She deposited Toby on the sofa and then sat next to him as her father came into the room and sat in the recliner that was next to where she and Toby were sittting. Sarah started playing with Toby, trying to tickle him as he sat scrunched over trying to avoid her nimble fingers, laughing uncontrollably.  
  
Sarah and her father talked about how she thought she did on the exams and what all she had done in college. How she got along with her roommate. How her acting classes were going. How her finances were holding out. The usual things. All the while Toby was still laughing as Sarah continued to try to tickle him.  
  
Soon it was time to eat and Toby, Sarah, and their father all sat in the living room and ate the meatloaf that Karen had fixed for them all. Not one word was said about how the meatloaf tasted, just the ketchup bottle being passed around was evidence enough of what they all thought of it. As supper concluded, Sarah announced that she was tired and was going to go up to her room and go to sleep.   
  
"Aw, come on Sarah! I don't even go to bed this early!" Toby complained.  
  
"Remember Toby? Tomorrow's Saturday! Nothing but cartoons in the morning and the park playground in the afternoon, but right now I need some sleep, okay?"   
  
"Okay..." Toby reluctantly agreed.  
  
Sarah looked at her old room. It looked so different when all her stuff had been taken out of it. She had packed most of her stuff away when she went through it deciding what she needed to take with her to college, and what needed to stay here. The only things she had left out where she could see them were her teddy bear collection, and her poster of M. C. Escher's Relativity that was still hanging on the wall next to her bed. Gone were the other items, the videos, the games, the countles number of fairy tale books, the unique little items that she had collected from one place or another, all gone and packed up in storage in the attic. She sighed and walked over and sat down on the bed. She glanced around at the walls of her room, shrugged her shoulders, got up, unzipped her suitcase and starting unpacking.  
  
Saturday and Sunday had come and went. Sarah had enjoyed watching cartoons and playing with Toby in the park. She had almost forgotten what it was like to see the world through the eyes of a child. She also had enjoyed having a nice discussion with her stepmother Sunday afternoon, and she was glad that she had started to see that Karen wasn't just some evil stereotypical stepmother, but rather a human being who loved her father almost as much as she did. Sarah was happy to be home.  
  
Monday morning had seen her father and stepmother off to their jobs as this was the last week of work for both of them. They had both been able to get the week that Christmas fell on off, so they were busy now so that they didn't have to come in at all the week of Christmas, and definitely wouldn't need to be called in all the way from California. Sarah had seen them off and then she and Toby, who was out of school for Christmas the same time she was, made themselves pancakes for breakfast with only minor mishaps involved, chief among them being when Toby had accidentally poured flour all over the floor and Sarah had had to clean it up. They both then watched t.v., played checkers, watched videos, and generally had a good time well into the early afternoon. Around 3:45, Toby turned to look at Sarah.   
  
"What time is it?" he asked.  
  
"About 3:45, little dude. Why?" Sarah asked.  
  
"Uh-oh! Gotta get ready!" Toby exclaimed as he jumped up from where he had been siting on the floor putting together a jigsaw puzzle and taking off for his bedroom.  
  
"Gotta get ready for what?" Sarah asked.   
  
She got up and went to Toby's room. The door was closed and Sarah could hear Toby rummaging around inside. She was about to knock and enter when Toby opened the door and marched out. He looked like he was wearing some kind of Halloween costume from what Sarah could see of him as he quickly ran down the stairs to the den. She looked at what he was wearing over the shirt he had been wearing all day, and it appeared to be some sort of flimsy plastic vest that looked a little like a big face on his back An uneasy feeling of deja-vu swept over Sarah as she followed Toby downstairs to the den. She watched as he sat down in front of the television set and put a brown plastic bag down on the carpet in front of him. He turned the t.v. on with one hand, picked the bag up with the other and dumped it out on the floor in front of him. Sarah looked at what had come out of the bag. Something about the contents was unsettling to her. A large clear ball was sitting on the carpet with a piece of paper draped over part of it. Next to that was what looked like a deck of trading cards. The final item turned out to be a round flat disc with a red, see-through piece of plastic flim in the middle of it. All this was spread out in front of Toby as he sat back to watch the television screen. As the v.c.r. below the television set turned to four o'clock, an image appeared on the screen. Sarah could only make out that it was a crystal ball with the number three on it before it changed to an identical crystal ball with the number two on it. Then the crystal ball showed the number one and then the screen went black.   
  
"I wish the goblins would come and take me away right now!" She heard Toby yell out loud. Sarah was too stunned to do anything. Her mouth was wide open. Her eyes were as big as saucers. She barely could think straight. She couldn't move. She tried to walk over to Toby, to protect him, or to keep him from going anywhere, but she was rooted to the spot where she was standing. She then heard a voice she hadn't heard in a long time coming, it seemed, from the television.  
  
"Okay, all you little goblins!" She heard what sounded like Hoggle say in a somehow cheery voice, "Live, from the castle at the center of the Labyrinth, beyond the goblin city, it's the Underground Hour with your royal host, Jareth the Goblin King!"  
  
*~*~*~*~* 


	2. Stay Tuned: Pardon the Interruption

I own nothing about these annoying ads nor any characters from Labyrinth  
  
  
We interrupt this fanfiction to bring you the following parody of an annoying commercial...  
  
  
Shot of Hoggle picking up a cheap plastic bag with Jareth looking on in anger as the bag breaks and garbage sprays out onto the once-clean floor of the Throne Room.  
  
The woman from those idiotic Gladd Bag ads: Jareth the Goblin King is mad...  
  
Jareth: That is obvious...  
  
Woman: His servants have been using these cheap Underground plastic bags...  
  
Hoggle: Hey! My cousin helps makes these!  
  
Jareth: Well, they are cheap but they are the only ones available to me at this time...  
  
Woman: You should have used Gladd bags, they stand up better under the strain of all those chicken bones, scraps, and rusty pieces of goblin armor...  
  
She picks up a Gladd bag, shakes it, and Hoggle's mouth drops open when it remains intact...  
  
Cut to usual spiel about how one brand of garbage bags is better than another, yadda yadda yadda...  
  
Woman: That's why you should have used Gladd bags, Your Majesty...  
  
Jareth: I think I will from now on. Now let me see that box of bags that you're currently holding.  
  
Woman: Sorry Jareth, you can't have these!  
  
Jareth holds up a crystal  
  
Jareth: I offer you a gift in exchange...  
  
  
Fade out...  
  
Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled fanfiction... 


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: None of the Labyrinth characters are mine, and they all will probably hate me for what I'm going to do to them anyway, yadda yadda, I have no money, please don't sue  
  
Stay Tuned  
  
by   
  
Delkon  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Sarah found that she could at least close her mouth and move her eyes around in her head, but she still could not find the strength required to step around the sofa to where Toby was sitting on the floor transfixed by the television screen. The television screen was now showing a animated white owl flying over an arial view of the Labyrinth, albeit a much simpler one due to it being an animated version. The music playing while the owl flew was familiar to Sarah. It was the same tune her music box played, although this version was speeded up a little and had a tinnish, somewhat childish tone to it. The animated sequence ended as the owl flew into an open window of the castle and the screen went black for a moment.  
  
The next thing that appeared on the screen chilled Sarah to the core. There was a black-gloved hand twirling what appeared to be four crystals, three going around in the gloved hand while the fourth rested on top of them. The gloved hand was held in front of a black clad chest with a very familiar medallion hanging on top of it. As Sarah watched, the unknown person's other hand came into view and picked the top crystal off of the others and held it up to the camera. Hoggle's voice could once again be heard.  
  
"Joining Jareth today are his usual co-hosts. First we have Sir Didymus!" As Hoggle finished saying this, an image of Sir Didymus's face came into view on the single crystal.  
  
The crystal then floated by itself out of view of the camera. The empty hand went back to the three remaining crystals and one of them slid into the hand and this one was presented to the camera.  
  
"Next it's that lovable behemoth, Ludo!" Sarah watched as the friendly beast's face appeared briefly before the crystal disappeared from view.   
  
The previous motions were repeated and while the hand was holding the next to last crystal up to the camera, Sarah watched as the hand holding the last crystal started to move the crystal in an sideways S shape, just like she remembered Jareth did the first time he offered her her dreams.  
  
"Joining us also is Agnes, the Junk Lady Extrodinaire!"   
  
There was a brief moment of confusion for Sarah until she saw the face and remembered her as being the one that tried to make her forget why she was in the Labyrinth after she had eaten that magic peach and had escaped from the ballroom bubble. The smiling face that Sarah saw now was actually friendly. This crystal also floated up and away from the camera.  
  
Sarah watched as the last crystal moved effortlessly from one black-clad hand to the other as Hoggle's voice was once again heard. The camera panned up quickly as the last crystal was thrown high into the air and Sarah was unable to see who had been handling the crystals, but she had a good idea who it was. As the crystal reached it's highest point before coming down, Hoggle's face could clearly be seen in it.  
  
"And my name is Hoggle! Welcome to the castle!"   
  
As soon as these words were said, Toby let out a little "Yay!" of excitement. The image in the crystal changed to the interior of some sort of chamber and the camera zoomed in on it. The interior shot changed to that of a live camera shot. The camera showed a large chamber with several things going on all at once. To Sarah's dismay, there seemed to be dozens of goblins of all shapes and sizes milling around.   
  
The camera finally came to rest on the stairway that Sarah remembered climbing in order to face down the Goblin King and rescue her baby brother. Seconds later, all the goblins quieted down as Hoggle's voice could be heard once again.  
  
"And now, boys and girls, here he is, the master of the castle, and ruler of the Labyrinth, Jareth! King of the Goblins!"  
  
Not a word was uttered, not a thing was heard over the speakers until a very faint clicking noise could be heard, apparently coming from the stairway. It got louder and louder while Sarah grew more and more worried. She didn't know what to expect to have happen. Would Jareth be able to somehow see her standing there in her den? Or would this Jareth even be the same one she remembered from her trip through his Labyrinth? Or would it be some Mr. Rogers type host? She wasn't sure, but seconds later, her question was answered as he came into view from the corner of the stairway. Her heart started to beat loudly in her chest as she stared at him. He hadn't changed one bit, he didn't even look like he enjoyed being captured by the camera.   
  
Sarah then found that she could move, albeit very slowly, and she knelt down behind Toby, ready to pick him up and run at the first sign of malice directed toward either her or the child she was positioned behind. Sarah's mind raced as she came up with all sorts of questions. Why here? Why did Jareth host a kid's show? Why was he suddenly some person who children apparently adored? Was this just a ploy to somehow get Toby again? Was she in danger now that she knew about this? Her attention was turned back to the television as she heard Hoggle come on and say that they were going to have a few words from their sponsors. Surprisingly, very surprisingly, the ads were all for local businesses, all in her hometown. This made her wary.   
  
As the last of the commercials ended, and Jareth appeared once more onscreen, Sarah decided that maybe she should try to get herself and Toby out of the den where the television was, just in case. Only seven words could possibly make Toby divert his attention away from the television screen, and although Sarah knew that she really shouldn't, she went ahead and said them.  
  
"Toby, would you like some ice cream?"   
  
Toby turned and looked at her to see if she was serious. When he saw her eyes, he could tell she was seriously asking him. He looked torn for a second, trying to decide whether or not to go with Sarah to get ice cream or to stay where he was and keep watching what, to him, was the best show in the whole world.   
  
"With chocolate sauce?" Sarah asked, pleadingly.  
  
"Okay!" Toby reached out to the things from his bag that were on the floor around him and picked up the disc with the flimsy red plastic sheet in the middle of it. He showed the disc to Sarah as she and Toby made their way to the kitchen, which was connected to the den.  
  
"Just don't let me miss the part where you have use the magic decoder to find the surprise! I finally got Momma to get me one last week and she said if I could find the surprise, she'd send in the letter for me!" He said as he sat down at the kitchen table as Sarah went over to the side of the kitchen where the refrigerator was to fix the bowls of ice cream.  
  
The doorway from the kitchen to the den was left open and Sarah said she would keep an eye on the show to make sure that Toby didn't miss the "Search for the Surprise" part that was coming up. She had taken the remote control with her and turned up the volume on the show. She sat down and watched as Sir Didymus, Ludo, and even Hoggle participated in read-alongs, skits, and interactive segments. She couldn't help but smile as Agnes, the Junk Lady, came on and showed how to make musical instruments out of empty toilet-paper tubes, pulling out all the materials required from the junk piled on her back. Jareth acted mostly as an overseer to all the activities, not really participating that much but just sort of delegating responsibilities to the goblins, making decisions about what was going to happen next on the show, and generally being a director of sorts. "It makes sense that he would be a good director, he's the king isn't he?" She thought to herself.  
  
As the show was coming to an end, Toby finished his ice cream and made his way back to the den. Sarah persuaded him to sit on the sofa and not so close to the television. She told him it was because sitting that close was bad for his eyes, but she really wanted him away from the television just in case Jareth tried to reach out and grab him or something of the like. She still didn't trust that this was an ordinary kid's show with an extraordinary cast of characters. Finally the "Search" came on. The shot on the screen suddenly went all red and then squiggly lines of different colors and shades appeared. Toby held the disc up to his eye and looked at the screen.  
  
"It's a duck! A big funny-looking duck!" Toby said then laughed at what he could see through the disc.   
  
Toby then asked for a piece of paper and a pencil. Sarah walked over to the bookcase that was next to the television stand and found some paper and a pencil and gave them to Toby. He eagerly took them out of her hands and got back down on the floor. As he was busy trying to draw what he had seen, the television caught Sarah's eye and she saw that the credits for the Underground Hour were rolling by. By the time she turned her full attention on the credits, they ended and the screen went blank.   
  
Sarah turned the television off and sat down on the floor next to where Toby was drawing a fairly good, if a bit crude, version of the duck he apparently had seen. She eyed the other contents of the his bag and the bag itself as Toby continued to work on his drawing. Picking up the "crystal", she was somewhat relieved to feel that it was plastic, a clear rubber ball. The piece of paper was found to be a 'Honorary Goblin' license that stated that Tobias Jeremiah Maxwell Williams was an honorary goblin and entitled to all priviliges and rights this afforded him. The letters of the words were well printed and Toby himself had messily written his name where it said "Sign Here". The deck of cards was next, and each showed a different goblin pictured on one side and their name and a brief bio on the other side. The last item was the bag that they had all been in. Sarah picked up the bag and saw that on one side it said "Toby's Horde" with the Horde part being printed on the bag, and Toby printed by his mother, apparently, and on the other side was a sticker that said that the bag was from the local cable company office.   
  
When her father and stepmother finally made it home, they found that Toby had been put to bed, and Sarah was sitting on the sofa in the den waiting for them. Sarah questioned them both about the Underground Hour but they both were puzzled by the young woman's apparent dislike of the show and why she seemed so upset about Toby having watched it. They asked her why she was so worried about the show. They had both watched it with Toby a few times, and they couldn't see anything wrong with it. It may have been a little crude with the humor but it was still a very innocuous show. Sarah tried to make them see that it might be bad for Toby to continue to watch it, but she really couldn't explain to them that the reason that she didn't want him to was because she was afraid that the host of the kids show might come and take the little youngster away like he had previously, when she had asked him to.  
  
The next day Sarah had a plan. When her parents left for work, she waited a few hours, then she got herself and Toby ready to go outside. She told Toby that they were going to go downtown to look at the Christmas decorations. She planned to also go by the cable office to see what she could find out about Jareth's show . She drove the both of them there and found a place to park close to where the office was. Toby looked around.  
  
"Can we go by the cable company Sarah?" Toby asked.  
  
"Why do you want to go there, little dude?" She asked in return, surprised that he knew where it was.  
  
"I wanna see if they got any of the new cards in!" Toby answered, trying to pull his seatbelt off and get out of the car at the same time.  
  
"Hold up a second, Toby!" Sarah said as she got out of the car on her side and ran around to Toby's side of the car. "Let me help you out." She said as she opened his door all the way and unwrapped the seatbelt from around his head.   
  
Toby pulled his hat up from over his eyes and started off in the direction of the office. Sarah quickly locked her car doors and followed. The little boy was already opening the door to the office and going inside as she reached the front of the office. She grabbed the door before it closed and, as she was stepping inside, saw a sticker on the door stating that Underground Hour merchandise could now be purchased at the drugstore down the street as well as inside. Toby was at the counter inside the office. He wasn't big enough to see over the high counter but was jumping up, trying to see the card display that was sitting on top. Sarah made her way over to the counter and could hear someone typing away at a keyboard somewhere in the back. Toby turned and looked at Sarah then back at the counter. She then picked Toby up and sat him down on the countertop, watching him as he then grabbed the display box to go through the cards.  
  
"Be out there in just a second!" A man's muffled voice said as the typing suddenly stopped.   
  
Noises of some things being moved around could then be heard from around the corner of a hallway that led away from the small area behind the countertop. Toby was starting to take the cards from the display box and putting them on the counter stating that he already had all of these, and as she was just about to get on to Toby for dropping some of the cards on the floor, the man's voice was heard again, this time sounding much closer to where the two of them were.  
  
"Sarah? Is that you?" 


End file.
